Tilapia, named the 'food fish of the 21st century', is one of the most cultured freshwater fish in the world, farmed in more than 100 countries (Norman-Lopez & Bjorndal, 2009). A hardy and prolific, fast-growing tropical fish, it requires low input during grow-out periods and can be farmed successfully on any level, from extensive to intensive culture in ponds, tanks or raceways (Fitzsimmons, 2006). It is disease resistant, tolerant of poor water quality, can eat a wide range of food types and be cultured in fresh or brackish water. Chemicals and antibiotics are not necessary for commercial farming (Fitzsimmons, 2008).
Introduced into the Pacific Islands region in the 1950s, tilapia became a commodity for culture due to its low-cost and success in other regions. For Fiji and Samoa, tilapia was for human consumption and as potential pig feed (Costa- Pierce, 1998), although in Tonga it became an unsuccessful attempt to control mosquitoes. Fiji and Papua New Guinea both have policies of government support for tilapia farming in rural areas. Household-scale tilapia farming is common in the Pacific but medium-scale enterprises are now on the increase (Pickering, T. 2009).
Efforts in value adding of tilapia have been minimal in the Pacific (spc.int). Tilapia is mostly sold live or fresh in bundles but interestingly in Papua New Guinea, cooked tilapia (fried) is sold on the roadsides (Ponia & Mobiha, 2002). Simple village level post harvest processing, such as
smoking may exist in some countries (spc.int) but proper documentation is absent.
This annotated bibliography was developed as part of the Scoping Study for PARDI 2010/002 prepared by South, G.R., et al., 2011. Scoping study for Tilapia (Oreochromis sp.). Suva: Institute of Marine Resources, School of Marine Studies, FSTE, USP. References are specific to the Pacific or are directly related to the project. Most of the references are annotated
